Both sport and commercial fishermen have found that live shrimp, when used as bait in trolling or other forms of fishing, is an exceptionally effective way to attract fish. However, keeping the shrimp bait alive while onboard an open fishing boat during the fishing operation, has met with significant difficulties in the prior art. The shrimp is very susceptible to a water storage medium which is either too warm or too stale. In addition, shrimp tend to group together and overcrowd one another, which tends to reduce their survival rate. Furthermore, the species and size of the shrimp bait used for a particular fishing objective also varies so that is is desirable to somehow segregate the shrimp bait for the various possible types of fishing.